Smart perception and autonomic optimization: A novel bio-inspired hybrid routing protocol for MANETs

Routing in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) is an extremely challenging issue due to the features of MANETs. In this paper, we present a novel bio-inspired hybrid trusted routing protocol (B-iHTRP) based on trusted assessment, ant colony optimization (ACO) and physarum autonomic optimization (PAO). Firstly, we introduce the cross-layer perception into ACO to obtain perceptive ants. Then, we divide the network into multiple zones. Within each zone, the route table is maintained proactively by the perceptive ants which can sense concerned parameters. Among zones, the perceptive ants are sent to reactively find routes to destinations while sensing concerned parameters. Secondly, B-iHTRP uses PAO to select the optimal one from the found routes and autonomically optimize the local routes during the course of multi-zone communication sessions. Simulation results show that B-iHTRP can achieve better performance comparing with existing state-of-the-art algorithms.